Things are going ballistic, Part 2
I’m all out of whack with sleep and my energy levels. Let me elaborate on my currently ballistic life before I go to bed.
On Friday morning I got a job offer. You may remember how last year I supervised examinations, and how the guy in charge of examinations gave my name to another department for a room auditing job. Well, he’s suggested me as the person for another job, this being in the Business School.
Basically, it would involve reviewing units’ stucture and content and matching them to outcomes – I think it’s sort of like an audit of the School’s units, to make sure they are on track with their aims and outcomes (this is the very brief version based on the brief information I got from the phone conversation). If I was to do this job fulltime, they think it will take 6-8 weeks. I explained that with my PhD and part-time tutoring, fulltime would be impossible. At the very most I might be able to work part-time, but that would depend on how many hours that would be, when they wanted me to work, and whether I got the approval from my PhD supervisor etc. The woman that rang said they would consider part-time hours. We agreed to a meeting on Tuesday morning with her and the Head of School to discuss the job and finer details. I haven’t commited to anything, other than the meeting at this stage.
I fired off an email to my supervisor immediately, which she hopefully reply to tomorrow. Part of me hopes she will just say “That’s a terrible idea!”. I’ll just ring the Business School and give my apologies, cancel the meeting and avoid wasting their time any more.
The benefits of taking on this job (which is why I am considering it at all) are to do the networking opportunities and experience, working in yet another part of the university. Like it or not, I know that once I’ve finished my PhD, I will apply for teaching or research positions, but there are very few vacancies in my field. Jac and I are prepared to move if I score a good job somewhere interstate (we will consider an international move too, but it would have to be really really good). The more doors I can get my foot into around the university the more chance I think I will be able to find work after the PhD. I may not be able to get an academic or teaching position for some time, but at least I’d be working in the university. Also I feel that if I continue to take on the opportunities that the exams guy recommends me for, he’ll only keep recommending me for future opportunities that come up. When I was rung up about the room auditing job it wasn’t an interview – it was a job offer, which I accepted on the spot. This latest phone call also felt like an offer, rather than an interview. I got the impression if I’d said yes, the job would’ve been mine, just like that.
The negative side is that I would be adding to my already busy schedule. Firstly, this would probably push me over the limits for employment that are part of the conditions of my scholarship (this could put my scholarship in jeopardy). I could take on this work part-time, continue to tutor and change my PhD enrolment from fulltime to part-time, but my scholarship is only valid while I am fulltime, so I would no longer be eligible for the scholarship. I do not know how much the job will pay yet – that’s something else I will be finding out the meeting, which will of course affect whatever decision I will make. The other alternative is to suspend my PhD for the 6-8 weeks and do the job almost full-time (well, providing they would be flexible with my hours as I have my teaching commitments and would have to take time out during three days of the week for classes and lectures). The university doesn’t like people to suspend their PhDs because it is possible that you won’t come back to it (the university gets money from the government with every PhD that graduates, so if you abandon your PhD that’s money the uni will not get). While there is no chance of that (I am hellbent on finishing), I don’t know if I want to knowingly and deliberately add on another 2 or so months to my PhD.
Oh well. I’ll wait and see what my supervisor says. Right now I am inclined to turn the job down, despite the positives; forgetting all the negatives I’ve mentioned, it would just complicate my life even more right now. Hopefully the decision will be clear to me tomorrow, and I can either cancel the meeting or look forward to it.
My meeting with the Dean of Graduate Studies is also coming up. Every PhD candidate meets with the Dean when they are approximately two-thirds of the way through their PhD. During the meeting you discuss your schedule for completion, any problems that may delay your completion, and you work out your milestones and make any necessary amendments to your schedule. If you’re not keeping up with your research/thesis as scheduled, I presume they give you a kick up the bum and threaten to stop your scholarship until you catch up (this has happened to at least one PhD student I know). Unfortunately, they’ve scheduled my meeting during a time when I’d be teaching class, so I’ve had to request a new meeting time. There is a part of me that thinks the last thing I should be considering just as this meeting is coming up is suspending my enrolment or taking on more non-PhD commitments. I’m pretty sure the Dean won’t be impressed. Argh, it’s all too complicated!
Although tomorrow is the Labour Day public holiday in Western Australia, the university is open as usual, and so I have a lecture to attend – grrrrrrr!